"Please scan this QR code to download a pdf of our menu that's not formatted for your phone's screen because screw responsive web design" is a dystopia that no sci-fi author could've predicted.
1/3 Today you're gonna hear a lot of hype about a blue #SuperMoon, so let me unpack what this means.
The Moon's orbit around the Earth is slightly elliptical. Sometimes it's a bit closer and thus looks a tad bigger. The difference is barely noticeable, not even remotely close to "super".
"Blue Moon" refers to this being the third full #Moon in a season that has four or, more commonly (but not in this case) the second full Moon in a month.
I'm tired of sitting through #science talks where all plots are properly credited but artist's impressions and photographs aren't.
As a researcher and astrophotographer who works with super talented artists, this attitude really bothers me.
You study galaxies at the dawn of time. You look for biomarkers in the atmospheres of distant planets. You can most definitely find who made that cool image you just pasted in your slides.
@mcnees And when you're almost done with your paper and open that folder to dig out some extra references, only to find an obscure paper from the 80s with your exact same result:
Given its latitude, from ESO's Paranal Observatory in #Chile you can see the core of the #MilkyWay passing directly overhead. In this pic I took a few years ago you can see its faint glow reflected off the dome of one of our 8 m telescopes.
My neck wasn't happy when framing this shot, though, as my camera doesn't have a flip screen! 😅
The new 4.2 version of #Mastodon includes significant improvements in the search function!
My favourite one, which I've been using a lot lately to find new people to follow, is that profile search now works on bios too and not just the user name. So if you type, say, "astronomer", "scicomm" or "journalist", you'll find people with those words in their bio.
And the opt-in full-text search for posts, with operators, is also great!
As someone who works in #communication , I'm baffled by some folks here on #mastodon who talk down about users of other #SocialMedia platforms in a patronising or even insulting way, only to immediately add: "I don't understand why they don't come here!"
From a goal-oriented comms point of view, this makes zero sense if your true goal is to drive people here, no matter how well justified your criticism of other platforms might be.
I love #reading in my balcony, but the constant display of squirrels being all cute and fluffy makes it very hard for me to concentrate on my book 😅 #wildlife#WildlifePhotography
Like many other scientists I often get "debate me" emails from random people with weird ideas about #astronomy. If I answer, they feel validated. Same if I don't. So I always pick the option that doesn't waste my time. Don't fall for the "debate me" trap, folks, you can't win. #scicomm